Istanbul Airport

Arrivals - we had to wait over an hour to clear passport control. It was very dirty, someone had spilt liquid on the floor and no one cleaned it up, people had to just step over the mess. Departure - our plane landed at 1.05pm from Antalya, had to get to the international airport which was a 20 minute walk, then had to clear passport control in which queues were horrendous. Staff talking with other officers not knowing passengers waiting for flights had other flights to depart. After clearing PC had to walk 15 mins to boarding gate, by the time we finally managed to get there they closed the gate. We even saw the bus shuttle going but a very rude officer refused us entry even though there was 15 mins until the flight departure time. We then had to go to transfer desk which took 15 mins just to find desk, tiring and awful experience. Finally got us on the last flight.

Istanbul Ataturk airport should be avoided at any price, it's the most unorganised airport in Europe in my opinion based on few times travelling in and out. Staff are extremely rude and arrogant. It's so busy due to the passport control. Imagine hundreds of people waiting in the queue to enter or exit the country and the officer on his mobile phone talking and at the same time stamping passengers passports - it's absolutely shocking and it takes forever to pass. Hardly any staff at this airport speak English, I will never ever fly to Istanbul. It's so dirty and price for food and drinks are expensive.

Istanbul Ataturk seems to be very crowded and dirty in some of the places. The airport toilets are unbearably dirty (I waited for the plane). But, the staff there are quite helpful and a lot nice places where you can shop.

Istanbul Ataturk is an absolute nightmare of an airport. 2 hours waiting like cattle shoved together to get through passport control. Almost missed the flight home because of the delay. Ruined the end of a wonderful holiday. Will never ever use this airport ever again. Horrible experience

The airport has not kept up with increasing numbers of fliers flying into Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. The airport was extremely crowded while I was transiting over a 4 hour period and I found myself having to weave through a sea of fellow travellers, negotiating countless obstacles. Air Conditioning: I don't know whether it was a combination of the number of people, or the A/C was broken or what, but I was sweating throughout my stay at the airport. Even sat down, I had to use a menu to cool myself down. Seating: Briefly, there isn't enough seating in the airport at all. People were sitting on the floor or standing up. I resorted to having an unnecessary meal just to sit down at a restaurant. Food/Shopping: Good news, there is plenty of food and shopping options in the airport. I can't comment on price or quality of the shopping, but I went to Carluccios and the experience wasn't great. High prices and low-quality food that seemed to have been quickly fried, although overcooked didn't leave me with a good impression. Cleanliness/Signage: The signage was relatively good, although I find that very few can be as good as the black font on yellow background in the UK. The airport was relatively clean and I saw nothing of note. Toilets: There aren't enough of them, but the quality of the toilets themselves were good and they were relatively clean. Wifi: The free airport wifi is actually pretty good. You do need a working telephone capable of receiving international text messages in order to receive a verification code. Speeds are decent for browsing, email and basic internet needs, but not good enough to stream video - probably because so many people were attempting Skype calls there. Overall: Definitely not an airport I would want to stay in with my wife and two very young children as I can surmise that it would be a thoroughly miserable experience. It wasn't a traumatic/terrible time, just extremely uncomfortable.

The line at Passport Control is a serious health and safety concern, apart from being a terrible "welcome" to Turkey. I waited almost 2 hours, and friends regularly wait 2 or 2.5 hours in that horrible line. There is no policing and little organization, so you have sweat, chaos, people cutting through unsealed barriers, old people fainting, children screaming, fights breaking out. I saw the paramedics called last time - they must be busy. Whoever is responsible for this should lose their job. THY is a great airline and Turkey is a great country to visit, but Istanbul Ataturk will make you suffer for hours to get in. Don't expect to make your connecting domestic flight - I'm not sure why they even still sell tickets with domestic connections. I have never seen such a poor Passport Control.

This wasn't a good experience at Istanbul Ataturk. This is a big airport, but they should do better to make the airport less crowded. The staff aren't friendly and we had to go through security again for our connection. Also the WiFi isn't working for people living outside Turkey.

I ended up waiting 3 hours to clear immigration at Istanbul Ataturk airport. It is thoroughly chaotic and disorganised at the moment. The security staff kept shouting at people to get behind the red line, this was impossible due to the sheer crush of angry customers who had been waiting for hours. Not enough immigration officers and the ones that were there were slow, rude and arrogant. Avoid this airport for now.

There is free wifi at Istanbul Ataturk but only for phones (that are capable of receiving an international text/SMS). Connect to the wifi with "free" in the title, put in your number (include country code then miss the first zero as per normal) and hit enter, they text you a code to put in and you've got 2 hours free. This is the case with international arrivals and domestic departures, haven't tried it yet for international departures. But if you are working off a laptop or tablet then there isn't wifi. Domestic departures is chaotic but fine with a few eating choices and quite a lot of seats. There's a semi outside smoking area airside if that's your thing. International arrivals is bedlam. It took us a full 2 hours to get through immigration (just because of the queue). It took us so long to get through that we weren't even on the baggage screens anymore.

Istanbul Ataturk is a bit of a mess overall. First of all, it is quite difficult to navigate. The gates are all over the place (I had to walk about 15 minutes to get from place to place), and you wind up and down stairs, terminals, and very busy, overcrowded hallways. Second, most planes can't even reach the gate. I connected through here, and only 2 of my 4 flights did not require getting to the plane by bus - representative that this airport is far beyond its capacity. Third, I had to go through a second security checkpoint on my way to New York JFK, which was quite a mess (passengers spilled out of the actual gate and into the hallway, blocking other passengers). Staff did not direct passengers to get into the line, and I had about 5 people check me individually, it seemed very unorganized. Fourth, there simply aren't enough seats or chargers in this airport. I sat on the floor for about an hour charging my phone (no plugs near seats), and had to fight for a place to sit while waiting for a connecting flight. Lastly, there is no free wifi.